Futuristic [LORE] Sail the Stars: Information Desk

[RandomBlobMan]

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The setting of this rp is a general scifi world where Faster Than Light travel is a thing, and laser guns and energy weaponry are also a thing. Something like a mixture of Halo and Borderlands. No superpowers though, only super technology.

The Currency
Ever since multiple species came into contact with each other in space, they all agreed to unite their currency systems to ease trading between different kinds. The Currency, while not having one name spoken throughout people, is just called The Currency no matter the language.(If there isn't the word currency in the language, then they refer to it as something that has the most similar meaning to that). Humans often refer to it as Credit too.

Quick Human Lore
Humanity prospered on Earth for countless years, but such life ended when the Last War on Earth rendered the planet uninhabitable in almost all places. A selected few planned a great escape from the dying planet, and began their search for other inhabitable planets. Such expedition yielded positive results, and now humans can be seen throughout the galaxies.
The species as a whole is lead by the United Government of Humanity (U-Gov for short), which has a set of chain of command under it based on regions. While the governments do have power over the people, interstellar corporations that grew through time too possess a noticeable amount of influence around their local systems.

Chain of Command:
United Government of Humanity (U-Gov) -> Local Government of Humanity (Lo-Gov) -> Planetary Council of Humanity (PlaCo) -> modern nations' size governments and so on.


>"Elves"
The descendants of a few rich humans who genetically modified themselves to resemble the appearance of the generic elves portrayed in the media. They have long, pointy ears. While they are humans in legal terms, most prefer to differentiate themselves from the non-pointy folks. Their physical capabilities hardly differ from the humans, and the only way one can distinguish them is the appearance of the ears. Half elves do not exist, as a child between an elf and a human always has a non-pointy ordinary human ears.

Interstellar Corporations:
These corporations are ones that have influence over more than one planet, and maybe even on multiple galaxies. While full on wars are no more in the current era, there are countless little and big conflicts present in many corners of the world, so naturally most of them manufacture their own line of weaponry. The products vary from infantry size firearms to giant spacecraft mounted arms. While there are interstellar corporations that do not manufacture weapons, those are the rare kind.
Here are a few examples with short descriptions:
-Riverton Corporation:
Well known for their infantry firearms and combat vehicles. One of the most widespread human based corporation- and as widespread as it is, the reputation of the company differs from region to region as the local heads each prefer different business strategies. Riverton is the direct successor of one of the two major companies that ruled Earth back at the Last War on Earth.

-Waltz Co.:
Well known for their recreation of old human historical designs, Waltz Co. manufacture "modernized" firearms that were originally manufactured during and before the era of WW2. Examples include lever action rifles and even muskets. The company generally focuses on bringing back vintage culture of humanity and reintroducing them to the world.

-Clairvoyance Cataclysm:
A company that concentrates on developing custom A.I.'s for all purposes. While it is a human based corporation, many of its employees are Artificial Intelligence that passed the test to be legally accepted as a citizen.

-Cynthian Riptide:
Cynthian Riptide concentrates on manufacturing energy based firearms and battery based force shields. While many other corporations(including Riverton for example) produce energy shields, Cynthian Riptide is the first among humanity to start manufacturing them for military purposes and is still the leader of the market. Ever after coming into contact with other species, the company has been aggressively jumping into their markets and hiring their people. While Riverton is the most well known among humans, Cynthian Riptide is most well known generally throughout the galaxies.

-Hwasubun:
A corporation that mainly focuses on medicine and food products. It is one of the rare ones that never produce any war related product, minus the medical supplies(though those are always required be it war or not). They have Aid Teams that travel to areas in need to provide support should they request any. While most companies tend to have a scandal or two due to the size and the inability to completely prevent illegal activities of its members, Hwasubun so far has been clean with only the intention of the betterment of life.
The corporation has recently been contacting corporations of other species in hopes of helping the manufacturing of medical supplies for other kinds.


---
If you wish to contribute to the lore, please send me your details first. I'll confirm it and then you can post them here.

 

[0stinato]

Species

Species Name: Homo Taurus/Homo Indicus

Home planet/Home land/Home ship: Bestla XII

Planet details:
Bestla XII is a small planet the orbiting Centurion star. Its orbit is only just in the ‘goldilocks zone,’ with its climate on the colder end of things. Vegetation is hardy and the landscape consists of salt flats or harsh hilly terrain. Its intelligent inhabitants are Homo Taurus and Homo Indicus. Homo Taurus make up 74% of this intelligent population. They do not differ much in terms of build, as both have evolved with bovine heritage. Physical differences between the two are few, though the two species have been shown to store fat differently, and tend to prefer different tactics of physical combat: both use their horns, but Homo Taurus use a goring action whereas Homo Indicus use their horns to shove their opponents.

The greatest physical differences found are linked to where clans or superclans form: a superclan living on the edge of a salt flat were found to have shorter, coarser hair which shed throughout the year to prevent salt damage, whereas a superclan living in harsh, snowy weather had multiple fur layers for insulation that only shed once a year.

Social:

The social habits of both species can be narrowed down to four distinct ways: clans, superclans, habitations and nomads. All except the nomads are shaped by their climate and location, causing numbers to differ in accordance with the environment. Habitations are similar to human town- or even city-ships, with Homo Taurus/Homo Indicus superclans joining together into a strong hold. When this happens, although clan relations remain, they get slowly eroded with time and social barriers get crossed. It is in these habitations that most technological advances were made, although it must be noted the first satellite was designed by a small clan alone.

Intra-universe communication centres are only located in habitations due to their size and need for workers. It is usual for individuals to leave their clans to join a habitation for this reason, and it is much easier to join a habitation than it would be to join a clan or superclan.

Clans and superclans hold the strongest relations, as is to be expected. Large-scale combats only seem to happen between clans and superclans, where your bloodline defines your loyalty. There have been no wars that rival those recorded in human history, simply because the planet is not habited enough, and even combat between habitations does not last long.

Nomads are the final type of Homo Taurus/Homo Indicus social method. It is quite simple to think what they do: instead of belonging to one clan or another, nomads travel either alone or in small groups, sometimes seeking shelter in the holds of clans, superclans or habitations when they need to. The general attitude towards nomads differs between social type: habitations are suspicious, often seeing nomads as leeches to the society; superclans are generally welcoming of nomads, as their multi-clan structure builds an attitude of tolerance; clans often shun nomads, preferring to keep outsiders out.

Diet:
Homo Taurus/Homo Erectus are omnivore, though have a high amount of meat in their diet. This is likely also climate-related, as animals are much easier to rear on rough vegetation and produced product than plants are to cultivate.

Appearance/Biology:
As previously stated, appearance of Homo Taurus/Homo Indicus is primarily influenced by location: fur types can range from coarse and dry to smooth and oily; fur colour is usually a sliding scale of brown or grey, though there is a superclan in which a pinkish-white fur colour has been found; nose pigment can be peach, brown or even a bluish black; horns may be extreme or not present at all, and presentation is influenced by social norms (clans often have certain colours or patterns that are painted or carved onto horns, and some habitations require short horns for safety, for example).

Homo Taurus/Homo Indicus all have cloven hooves, but also have hands similar to human hands. Due to their preference for physical combat however, they have stronger bones in their hands and wrists, as well as very strong tendons. Where a human may break their hand hitting a brick wall, a Homo Taurus/Homo Indicus would have to apply much more force to break a bone.
Pictured: Gammanth, Homo Taurus, matriarch of the Grrouht clan.
Off-Planet Interaction:
With intra-universe communication, a lot was discovered about Homo Taurus/Homo Indicus. Later, after much contact with the various interstellar corporations, a habitation called H’wward constructed a deal with the Riverton Corporation that, due to their species’ fighting style, they could have a lot to offer in terms of aiding design of physical combat suits as well as unique weaponry, but they would want regular transport from the Bestla XII to stations, for the experience and expansion of their knowledge of the universe. After some back-and-forth, Bestla XII gained a ‘taxi service’ of sorts: Bestla XII hadn’t yet gathered materials or the space necessary to build ships of interstellar travel, so this would have to do. As of now, there is an offworld ‘clan’ forming on a station. This clan is recognised by most Homo Taurus/Homo Indicus, but is largely shunned by clans, citing that this offworld clan was formed by members of a habitation, thus, it cannot be constituted a real clan.

Current status:
Bestla XII is not experiencing any wars currently, although regular battles happen between clans and superclans. There is no interstellar warfare going on that includes Bestla XII.

 

[SpazTheButcher]

STARCOM Lore:

Spoiler: The STARCOM Navy

STARCOM is the designation given to the long arm of the Starfleet, and is the most feared and respected name in the Galaxy, supporting about 100 dreadnoughts, 500 destroyers, and tens of thousands of smaller craft.As the officers thirst for power, they have been known to be more cocky and reckless, but also they are more likely to help those under attack.

Spoiler: Colonial Marines

The Colonial Marines are the toughest and best branch of STARCOM. This branch has four main purposes: ship boarding/repelling boarders, zero-gravity combat, and Air to Ground combat. This does mean that the Colonial marines have a small, but effective, population of gunships and dropships. The marines are common split into three sections, Infantry, Pilots, and Force Recon. Infantry are as you expect, being armed with the M41A Mk2 Rifle, Pilots the same, but Force Recon is unique, for they are armed with heavy duty power armor, with a build in chain gun(for images, look up Maritain Marine Force Recon). The Colonial Marines also are known for favoring Kinetic and Ballistic weapons over Energy based, which are very common in the STARCOM Navy

Spoiler: Mobile Infantry

The Mobile Infantry is the name given to the "Ground Pounders" of STARCOM. These men, armed with the Morita III assault rifle, are but 10 regiments strong, and are only used in planetary invasions.

Spoiler: PDF

The Planetary Defence Forces. The biggest joke since the US Coast Guard, many Naval commanders are suprised when they hear that their ships now belong to the PDF, which is quickly growing as the need for warships is draining. The PDF in the internal police for STARCOM, and is needing more and more resources as pirates become rampant.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Peace Committee

As FTL travel became prevalent across the galaxies, various species went into war with each other for countless reasons. Such age of violence lasted for centuries. Large scale battles turned planets and stars into nothing but dust and ash. The loss of lives were irreversible. Safe areas were a rare find for what felt like an eternity. The age of war lasted until the officials of such species gathered in order to prevent further destruction of lives and resources. The Peace Committee was formed, lead by the most intelligent minds of various origins, doing their best to resolve conflicts before they rise into dangerous levels.
Peace Committee is welcomed by most people, forcefully if not willingly. They are considered the last warning by the highest ranks of power before the conflict ends in a more... bitter way. Thankfully, the gathered intelligence of the members allow for the lesser of the worst, if not the best, option.


Solar Wind

While most legal conflicts are able to be solved in court, some cases start out physical- such as piracy or terrorism. Due to such cases, Peace Committee possesses a fleet of special forces for conflicts of various shapes and sizes. Code named Solar Wind, these forces are provided cutting edge technology pieces and the most trusty firearms for a quick resolve for any problem that has no hopes of getting better.
Solar Wind has priority in the chain of command of any faction that is a part of a species that is a part of Peace Committee when in field. While uncooperative behavior is not directly punished, it may affect the offender's among the Committee greatly.

 

[Vagabond Spectre]

Kepler-62f

An Exoplanet that is 1.41 times the radius size of Planet Earth and is about 1200 lightyears away. Found in the Lyra constellation orbiting around a K-type star known as Kepler-62. This superearth became one of the many habitable planets where the species race is 67% Humans because of it's weather conditions and goldilocks zone is similar to Earth's albeit not perfect as it is cold as as the planet Mars. The terrestrial planet consists of ravines, mega mountains and tunneling caves that breaths through the Earth. Dry sandy soil upon touchdown, nothing but soil for miles.

Humans have settled in this planet after the war on Earth. It was a race towards the planet to establish lands first hence, the division of lands. It doesn't help that most of the surface land on 62F is interconnected like an early Pangea, There's often a battle of lands, local raiders, and large prominent cities built in the middle of nowhere all at the same time. U-Gov has been taking control of this wild planet and minimize the chaos.

The surface is mostly used as an exploration, Mushroom agriculture and battlegrounds. There is more to the surface as beneath the fungal Earth lying beautiful cities and caves of wonders that can span a thousand miles. These were most of the people live, more specifically the lower social classes while the top gets the sun kissing their faces. There are borders among the veins of the caves as to show where the nations are divided much of that like above.

The oceans remained unexplored as mysterious sea creatures roams these turquoise waters, creatures large as mountains as their early marine evolutions puts their massive size to any advantage. An ocean larger than it was on Earth, what lies beneath the waters is a mystery.
Only 58% of 62F has been fully explored and understood.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Some Serious Violation of Human Rights

During the Last War on Earth, the two factions in conflict initiated various projects to enhance the combat abilities of their soldiers. Some of them included a suspicious amount of violation of human rights, all only to get their very own super soldiers.
Meridian, now a fallen corporation of the past, created T.H.E.A.F. (Tactical Hybrid Enhancement Assault Force). The soldiers went through modification procedures that included removing a significant amount of the soldier's body to replace with robotics. Each soldier of T.H.E.A.F. was given cutting edge technology to enhance their physical abilities, and even beyond human capabilities with various modules such as battery based shields and the such.
While the modification significantly increased their combat effectiveness, it required the soldiers to do maintenance every once in a while. Meddled and rigged beyond salvation, these warriors were hopeless once Meridian was defeated in the war, as the higher ups destroyed almost all data related to the T.H.E.A.F. Many survivors met death even before the escape from the planet began.
The technology used to make T.H.E.A.F. soldiers was reverse engineered by a group of scientists who later visited the planet, and was integrated to use in future generation lightweight power armors.

The predecessor of Riverton meddled with genetics more, finally succeeding on giving humans a lowkey "power". Known as the "Type A Surgery", this surgery allows the recipient to regenerate lost body parts at a very slow rate. Experiments records of war shows that recovery of a whole limb is possible, and takes a year or two at the least. Loss of vital organs such as the heart, brain, lungs did not yield positive results, as in most cases the patient deceased before the regeneration could further continue. It also significantly slows down the process of aging, extending the expected lifespan of the subject to around 240 years under the assumption that no side effect takes place.
The research took countless deaths of subjects to figure out the correct combination of DNA to allow humans to achieve such capability. Then only a few people were able to take in the surgery procedure without dying, which caused an extra pile of dead bodies in the recruitment of the Super Soldiers. Purely due to the casualties made in the process of the research, any appliance of Type A Surgery has been banned, and any record holding data related to it has been terminated. However, the survivors of the Last War still roam the wide cosmos, thanks to the long lasting effects of the Type A Surgery. Many are left on Earth, while a lucky few made it into the far distant galaxies.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

End Times

The Last War on Earth lasted only for about 4 years. Though T.H.E.A.F. was powerful in ground combat, they were hopelessly outnumbered by enemy forces as time passed. Countermeasures for their shields were developed, and if they couldn't deal with them with infantry, then they'd rather bomb the whole region. Such extreme measures brought only more damage to the planet, but what mattered to them was winning the war. An example of continent scale is the wipe out of the Eurasia continent- once Five Lines headquarters figured that Meridian's T.H.E.A.F. facility was in Europe, they initiated a nuclear warhead carpet bombing to ensure a complete and utter destruction of said facilities.
The War came to an end when Meridian's headquarter was infiltrated by a strike team. Armed too heavily for an infiltrating force, they nearly brought down the whole facility and captured only 2 survivors from the mission.

The end of the war was not a joyful sight. Soldiers returned to their homes, tired and wounded. People treated them as murderers. The planet was hopeless, the pollution and destruction of environment too great for the current population, though decreased greatly from the war, to handle. Five Lines announced themselves victorious. But they too were weakened from the war. It took almost everything they had to finally gun down their arc enemy.
The International Union took action. While Five Lines was too busy coping with the damage done, they ran trials against the corporation. For all the crimes they've done, they were charged a fine beyond measure. Without a doubt, the current Five Lines had to go bankrupt.
The countless violations of human rights were not ignored. Some had been gathering evidence in the shadows, risking their lives and biding their time. Such evidence was put to good use punishing the board of directors of Five Lines. In 5 years after the end of the war, Five Lines was completely dismantled; gone. Its greedy directors were all either put to jail, or shot down resisting their arrest.
The damage done to the world was beyond salvation. International Union started working on a plan to evacuate the whole population, or if not, as much as they could take. The remaining resource was enough to build spaceships of that size. But some of the higher ups had different ideas.

A secret message was sent to those who were deemed "worthy" of getting a ride. Politicians, military officers, entrepreneurs, rich CEO's and the like. They were going to leave this planet, and leave all those poor unworthy behind. Supplies supposed to go to the mass escape were used for a more private use. A launch site camouflaged by the ruins of war was built.
When the International Union's project got delayed, one of its higher ups decided to snoop in personally. Melissa Thompson, one of the valiant fighters who gathered evidence against Five Lines during the war risking their own lives, soon gathered enough evidence to know that some people were planning to leave on their own, with complete disregard of others' lives. But she was dealt with before this news could get anywhere. Her death was disguised as an accident, bringing sorrow upon the crowd.
Meanwhile, the very personal exodus was almost getting ready for launch. The chosen few gathered up in a last party before they left this bag of wastes, and initiated the final steps of their plan.
Type A Surgery Subjects were put to cryosleep at the end of the war. Five Lines was to use them if the time came, but they never got a chance. Until now. Military officers got a hand on a handful of the cryosleep devices, waking up 120 of those soldiers. While a handful left at the offer of guarding the "last hope of humanity's escape", many stood guard, believing the well crafted lie that they were the last rational survivors of humanity and were defending this facility for the escape while the berserk mob could attack. Their names would be remembered forever.

Once the spaceship for the chosen few, named Heaven's Calamity, was finally ready for launch, its crew broadcast a message worldwide. It was more a taunt than an announcement- it showed the location of the launch site, and how they were going to leave without them as they were unworthy of salvation. Naturally, riots broke out. Civilians formed armed forces to raid the facility, but were met with a crossfire from former soldiers of Five Lines. The experienced fighters earned just enough time for the ship to escape, the facility having been out of the area for broadcast. They died never knowing the truth.
What was left of International Union(which was approximately 32% of it in terms of numbers) continued their work on their ships among the chaos. Though Heaven's Calamity took the resource for two of their ships, they had enough left for just one of theirs.
Heart of Tenacity took the remainder of International Union and countless civilians on board. While many were left behind due to the lack of resources for a bigger and better ship.
So began the age of odyssey of the humans.


The Beginning

At the beginning of the war, Five Lines and Meridians were megacorps of megacorps, financially indestructible and strong enough to openly control government and not bat an eye to the criticism. With the amount of money in their pockets, they could deal with that so easily. Such status lasted for a long time as the two corporations competed in a less violent way-it brought faster advancement of technology, but brought the ignorance of human rights in the process at the same time.
It all started with a spark, when Five Lines found a spy of Meridian in their high ranks. Further interrogation and research revealed this spy has taken part in various scandals that had been quite a problem to Five Lines' business. It was a line of carefully planned sabotage. At first it was taken to the court, to handle the matter "fairly". But it became obvious that it was more a battle of bribe than a battle of truth and justice, and the results from the court had no meaning to the public. People hardly forgot the face of the judge as he glanced at the screen in front of him, probably showing the amount of money the two corporations have been sending him live.
This started a protest among the crowd- these two powers were getting out of hand, obviously. The court-though it was still full of scandals and bribing even before the reign of the two megacorps, which is a sad sight to see- where justice must be served, what happened was just an auction for the judge's hand. The protest spread world wide, and soon the whole world wanted down with the two of them.
The judge who took part in the corps' trials was assassinated. Five Lines and Meridian started pointing fingers. Then went the politicians of some countries that tried to pass a law that would limit the corps' activities greatly in those lands. More fingers were pointed as more casualties were made. In the days of chaos, a Five Lines transport truck holding flammable chemicals was detonated "in an unfortunate accident" while driving near a research facility of Meridian. The "accident" caused a major damage on the building, causing a great loss of lives and research data to Meridian. Meridian answered with a freak accident of one of Meridian's artificial animals(already sold worldwide as substitute pets of living animals or military uses) jumping in to one of Five Lines' buildings with a modified assault rifle attached to its back, firing and killing a handful of Five Lines employees and innocents.
Such incidents snowballed into larger scales of conflicts, until the two companies declared war on each other.


What about the Earth?

Some of Heaven's Calamity's crew managed to join in on the seat of U-Gov without facing punishment. They worked fast to pass a law- a law that prohibited access to Earth. Most armed spaceships could not enter the planet now. Towers were built on various locations for tourists visits, and they were the few landing locations allowed for anyone off of the world.
While the law was at first passed just so they didn't want the rest of Earth to be rescued, many who did not know the ugly truth believed it to exist so that Earth could be a reminder of how dirty we can get. In some way, it is.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Alien Countermeasure Team, a.k.a. ACT

ACT is a currently disbanded purely human organization of the E-329 Sector Local Government of Humanity. As their name suggests, they mainly researched alien lifeforms intelligent or not. Established secretly by the LoGov's head and his fear for Alien invasion, be it physical or cultural or in any way. This team of trained soldiers and scientists concentrated on collecting data about Various Alien Species of the Galaxy and How to Kill Them. Radiation, bio/chemical weapons, energy weapons, traditional firearms, all the sorts that would be deemed effective per species would be recorded and archived. In the process of their violent research, many were kidnapped and experimented on. The head's connection to the U Gov and its court kept him under the radar for a short amount of time until U Gov operatives pinpointed their location.
An operation of Solar Wind was requested by U-Gov secretly. The assault was quick and fast. A precision strike on ACT's headquarter vaporized the structure, and with it any backup of the data they had gathered. LoGov's head was arrested before he could even think of escaping their grasp, and put to custody under Peace Committee.

Similar behavior to ACT is strongly discouraged among humanity and other species in part of the Peace Committee, as the alliance was formed not for war but for peace and harmony.
CounterACT was formed under UGov's command, with the assistance of other Peace Committee members, as a sort of an interstellar special force that watch ACT-like activities.

ACT is definitely not my self insert faction that represents my concern for all these intensely well armed non human species

 

[Clan Ize]

伊勢ロボティクス株式会社
Ize Robotics Corporation

The Ize (Ise in Japanese) robotics corporation are a privately operated and independently owned Bounty Guild and High Spec Android producers. The company was founded in 2025 by Akito Ize, a bounty hunter after deciding to need more income. As a Bounty Guild they usually hold auctions in secure remote locations to decide who’s job they will do. Due to being quite hard to contact and being very good at their job with a 99% completion rate sometimes the cost of hiring them can go over 2 million credits on one assignment alone. As for creation of Androids the Ize Corporation usually creates an Android and sells it about once every 5 years. Due to the bespoke nature of the product, cost and power which it has once completed each android is fine tuned for maximum efficiency. Each android is equipped with many features. The most prominent being its fusion reactor. Based off of Nuclear Fusion the Ize Company has significantly improved them into an art making each reactor enough to power a Full scale space station. However with great power it comes at a cost. If in any way the reactor is exposed for too long it has a chance to overheat and explode causing massive damage.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

NOVA BOMBS AND PLASMA GUNS! (bonus point if you get the reference without searching)

Energy weapons, along with energy shields, opened up new options for weapons of war. As they require more cooling capabilities and more room for technical devices to stabilize the weapon's energy projectiles before they are fired, energy weapons, no matter the manufacturer, tend to be bigger in size compared to their lead firing counterparts in terms of similar projectile size.
Though the power of each shot depends on what type of energy is used and how it is fired, energy weapons tend to be more effective than lead projectiles against non shielded targets as they fire balls of energy(usually heat) rather than just a delivery of physical energy. But the use of more electronics means they are susceptible to EMP attacks and may not operate as well in some conditions where electronics may be interfered. Not to mention the price for manufacturing each-compared to a simple rifle without any special functions, an energy weapon, even a handgun sized one, requires more resources and money to make.
The strength and presentation an energy weapon brings is well worth the price, but along comes an equally formidable disadvantage. As such, many special forces, even some in Solar Wind, tend to prefer traditional firearms over energy weapons in usual combat.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Minor Corporations

Not every company is a hulking beast that works over various galaxies. In fact, there is more than twelve times the number of interstellar corporations that are smaller in size and power. Some deal weapons, some don't. Some have products of quality that rival, or exceed, that of a megacorp's. Some don't. Some treat their employees like slaves, and some treat them as equals and with respect. You might as well say that there are as many minor corporations as there are stars.
Most of the times, these corporations are the ones to hire an outside force to help them do business. Megacorps tend to have an inside team to deal with most matters, unless it is a time of emergency where they are in need but inside help is unavailable for whatever reason there is. While the influence of these little companies aren't as powerful as megacorps, they may be of assistance should you cross paths again.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

The Vrexul
​

Large starfaring arthropod nomads who live in large biomechanical fleets and scour the stars temporarily settling on worlds only to leave after scouring them for antediluvian secrets of some distant, shrouded past of theirs as well as lost "brood ships" bearing cryogenically preserved specimens of their kind. Historically they have had a rather shaky relationship with humanity; UGov and its corporations have come into conflict with them over not only their lost archaeotech but also the brood ships with a few having been claimed by the former as observer states and wards of their care, often exploiting them for their technological and martial prowess. In turn, the vrexul would contest key territories and pressure them politically for their release up to funding or fermenting insurgent groups and resistnace to UGov and in some cases, things would accelerate to open warfare.

When hostilties did accelerate to that degree, the relatively small though impressively well armed vrexul proved to be troublesome. Smaller warfleets were no match for the might of the battle-hardened humanity but what first started as counter-insurgencies resulted in riots, protests, and demonstrations on the civilian front against these conflicts to additional vrexul nomad fleets joining in to assist their own. What they lacked in sheer numbers and material as well as overarching organization was made up for in tenacity, cunning, and unusual technologies and tactics. It was bad enough that UGov and its allies began to employ grand counter-intelligence and expansionist tactics, manipulating the fleets through deals for power and territory while exploiting the hidden tensions that had been fermenting between many of the otherwise suspicious, reclusive factions that comprised them. Counter-terror operations, manipulating then installing new leaders, and employing specialized proxy armies were all used to break the growing momentum of what could have been a powerful new force on the galactic map.

The idea of pan-vrexul unity seemed strangled in the womb and most of them turned into smaller, more easily managed and dealt with vagabond fleets while other settled down onto frontier worlds, turned into client states of the human powers. A number of them however only became entrenched in their ways, believing their kind to not be safe in a galaxy where their cryptic search for their past was being interfered with or even exploited by an uncaring, callous hegemon. For some time they seemed like dried out revolutionaries turned scavengers, mercenaries, explorers, and manual workers but recently a worrying development has been occupying the minds many UGov think tanks. The vrexul are uniting again - on a series of seemingly desolate planets at the fringes of where humanity's power extends, large fleets once at odds with one another have been gathering and deploying strange terraforming technology. This coincides with once UGov aligned vrexul colony-worlds being engulfed in political scandals or erupting in major insurgencies. These are starting to extend to corporate-held worlds as traffic towards the growing union of nomads results in what could potentially be the nightmare of the last great power game between the two resurrected.

Spoiler: Species Rundown

They resemble enormous arthropods with dense carapaces bristling with cybernetics and integrated external biomass like living juggernauts, often possessing flattened or semi-triangular skulls and bodies with little in the way of visible tissue that's not some sort of flexible, segmented complex shell. They can move bipedally or on up to around 30 limbs. On average they are between seven and ten feet tall with a few species being around six foot five and a fewer up to around 20 feet when fully matured. They are masters of augmentation/integration technology to the extent some of them are basically small habitats for performance-enhancing symbiotes and hidden integrated tools. In spite of being reminiscent of arthropods such as devil's coach horses, carabid beetles, mangrove crabs, mantis shrimps, giant centipedes, and whip scorpions, their adult populations are not particularly large due to a variety of ground-up population controls and retaining quite a few eggs in cryogenic stasis for when they need to increase their numbers.

Spoiler: Technology

Their technology is a mixture of advanced biological and strange cybernetic components fused together as to be appear to be grotesquely inseparable. Much of it simply looks like it is made out of the previously mentioned organisms but combined with a deliberate architectural design in spite of often partially living components. Much of it is used to modify the bodies and exoskeletons of their own but it also manifests in the designs of their spacecraft, weaponry, and atmospheric vehicles and even computers and buildings. They are perhaps best known for their bioautomata; machinery comprised of replicated or lab grown biomass though they frequently feature heavy cybernetics. When it’s reasonable to do so, they typically use said bioautomata to free themselves up to do more desired tasks though they do not often replace the military. This results in an increasingly automated workforce but they are typically maintained and watched over by highly trained maintenance teams, some of which include sentient bioautomata themselves. The ability to modify genetics and biology has also allowed them to enhance their bodies to the extent they are often completely different organisms thant they would be naturally. Sets of feelers capable of detecting distant forms of radiation, additional limbs that can morph or split into different tools, parasite organisms that feed on and augment their own bodies simultaneously, even ranged weaponry - the possibilities only get stranger. They are known to do the same to certain arthropod animals in order for them to fulfill the roles of certain vehicles or bioautomata too. Their most advanced technology is now as “biovolatility”, allowing for the storage of multiple “encoded” body-morphs whether they are new tools, limbs, weapons, organs, and so on and for the most part, is typically relegated to military usage.

Spoiler: Sociopolitical Organization

Typically a nomadic fleet's society is classless or with its hierarchies of command being far looser than most. A lot of this is assisted by councils run by specialized intelligences of unknown but certainly ancient origin hooked up to some sort of gestalt cyberbiological mass of computational data and alien sapience known as a Vortex Repository. Comprised of a mixture of constantly mutating, decomposing, and rejuvenating mass both artificial and organic, it is the highest political power in each fleet and exists solely to ensure their survival. It is not immune to being influenced by the goals of those it is protecting hence the conflicts amongst the nomad fleets, made all the more possible by the AI councils known as Augur Veins. These analyse, refine, and analyse the information acquired from the Vortex Repositories, filtering it down to the various sub-councils that comprise a fleet and the specialized councils that represent different facets of thier society such as the cultural, technological, medical, industrial, and so on. These councils known as Command Organs are made up of directly elected representatives organized by the common people and hold the most power as a whole in spite of technically being "lower" on the hierarchy. This is a collective authority that can override both the Vortex Repository and Augur Veins if need be though in practice, it simply results in them being turned towards the will of the Command Organs. Some vrexul societies have a more conventional, humanlike way of structuring (unsurprisingly those often aligned with UGov) and others have a looser, more tribal approach or a mixed style of government if integrated with other species.

Spoiler: Culture and Psychology

In spite of being a communal species that is known for a general distrust of individualistic philosophies, they can come off as rather cold and distant not only to outsiders but one another. This is explained by the fact that the vrexul do not have a concept of family. They do however appreciate the bonds they form with others of their own accord and have a somewhat nihilistic view of the self as little more than the amalgamated echoes of its predecessors and world around it. This does not mean they are without pride or a sense of value to life; they simply believe in seeing people as contextually existing within and around the sources of said echoes. Seemingly in contrast to this coldness is the fact that they are quite charitable and compassionate as people, rationalizing it as “simply because we wish to be” and that there are reasons of self interest. Mutual aid forms the backbone of even well-off post scarcity areas and it is through this that alliances can be formed and bonds can be forged. What benefits one group of people can often be used to benefit all.

They are extremely distrustful of corporate power, private enterprise, and monarchial rule by defaul. They are not necessarily against “strong leaders” but only if there is a strong popular front as well and believe that any kind of political system, democratic, “freedom loving”, or otherwise, that doesn’t take into account or allow direct popular action is not one worth putting too much trust in. As such, they can come off as cynical or even judgemental (if you can make out what they are saying). This can lead to them being very independent, clique-ish, but they will not hesitate to help others in need in most cases even if they do not necessarily *like* them. They do not appear to be too attached to the idea of wealth, status, or fame and upon befriending them, they are open to treating others as the equivalent of family. While the word “family” did not exist in their vocabulary for a long time, they do value close friendships to the extent of being their version of it - after all, it is the bonds you choose and forge rather than were set up on you with no choice that mean the most.

Spoiler: The Vrexul Military

Spoiler: Infantry

Vrexul soldiers are large, hulking monstrosities bristling with the widest and often most powerful arrays of weapons, a number of which is encoded into their bodies. While typically handling heavy weapons in a squad set-up and drawing most of the hostile attention, they are also occasionally deployed as gun platforms, capable of withstanding and inflicting tremendous amounts of damage and being fans of weapons with large calibres and high stopping power - their main infantry rifle for example is a modified electrothermal-chemical type compact autocannon derived from those of their security automatons. Adding to their lethality, their bodies usually contain a number of explosive launchers, short range spine-spitters, bio-energy medium range laser emitters and so on “encoded” into their biomass. Further adding to this is their great diversity of munition types, with conventional high explosive armour piercing and incendiary to more exotic variants such as rounds that release swarms of biting and detonating living cluster munitions or bio-electric shells that burrow into then electrocute targets.

They are also fairly mobile, capable of digging underneath enemy fortifications, creating networks of tunnels, and like many arthropods surprisingly good at climbing in spite of their hefty size. A few are even capable of limited flight with modified wings and a number usually have smaller organisms living within them, capable of being used as drones or even attack units, saboteurs even with a sort of remote psychoneurological control. They are unsurprisingly horrific in assaults, with their massive size, bestial strength, genetically inherited hunting instincts, and numerous limbs being all the more terrifying when combined with close combat weapons generating fields of disruptive power allowing them to even slice vehicles open or even limbs capable of striking with the force or rifle bullets. Some are even capable of controlling fragments of Vortex Repositories, using it to swarm and rip away at targets or obscure their own movements, even capable of being hardened and morphed into floating defensive barriers.

Spoiler: Ground Vehicles

In spite of their lumbering appearance, the vrexul do not have many tanks. Most of their vehicles are actually troop transports, armored fighting vehicles, and mecha a number of which have both legs and either treads or wheels. They do quite well in rough terrain, some even capable of “climbing” steeper surfaces and others can burrow. These arthropod limbs can also be used against enemies that draw too close, to move objects, or even demolish buildings. Most of their semi-biological armour is armed with high rate of fire spike-launching weaponry and multi-missile launch systems, utilizing heavier duty autocannons and bio-plasma for harder targets. They can carry a good deal of weaponry through encoding it into regenerating biomass, allowing them to sustaining short but vicious bursts of high intensity firepower typically used against medium to light armour.

They are assisted by symbiotic organisms that inhabit and help repair their hulls, also capable of being used to attack nearby targets like infantry or to scout on ahead connected via neuro-electric links. Their main duty is to cover for and support troops from afar after the disembark but when they need to hit harder, their mechs come in. Spidery, crablike, staphylinid, stomatopod - these gruesome machines are freakishly mobile and carry long range heavy ordnance and powerful disruptor-field covered limbs that already are more than easily capable of smashing through fortress walls or walkers that find themselves caught off guard by these unexpectedly agile monstrosities. Capable of digging and even leaping short distances, they are masterfully crafted for the purpose of savagery and aggression up close or from afar.

Spoiler: Constructs and Creatures

The vrexul are the most well known for these given their propensity for biotech and augmentation. Cyberbiological constructs and bioweapons are used in near equal number with a plethora of options between both for numerous roles. Their smallest are the smaller sometimes squirrel to cat sized creatures that live within the armour of their soldiers, maintaining and repairing them, even helping to run their weapon systems, but they can be remotely controlled and deployed by said soldiers to scout on ahead, sabotage enemy systems, or even to attack threats within their control range. They are known to occasionally be modified to work as living mines and a number are also adapted to vehicular/mecha usage. Sizing up to creatures around 20 or so feet in length, similar to that of various larger mammalian fauna on earth, and grotesque creatures in the appearance of wolf spiders, vampire crabs, centipedes, carabidae, staphylinidae and mole crickets and others become quite common.

Larger than infantry but not really light vehicles, these fairly well protected and rapidly moving augmented entities can be armed with moderately heavier ordnance than infantry, even more if they focus on encoding them, and can use a mixture of animalistic instincts and higher intelligences to move as stealthily and swiftly as they would in the wild, capable of burrowing, flight, and climbing, while their natural (or lab-borne) limb-weapons are no less deadly. Finally, there are the superion class constructs/warbeasts, colossal entities occasionally larger than human assault platforms and bristling with living colonies of weapons, highly dense self-repairing armour, and horrific brute strength that can smash down reinforced bunkers and flip over armoured battalions. These are typically used as the spearhead of a major assault, drawing fire and retaliating in full as they barrel into enemy lines and even burrow underneath them, causing havoc and disarray while the rest of the vrexul assault force capitalizes on the scattered, distracted foes to gain ground.

Spoiler: Exospace Vessels

The vrexul tend use large and heavily armoured ships, preferring enormous lumbering monstrosities with protruding scything limbs, multiple layers of shifting carapace plating, and smaller bio-construct creatures hidden within their bodies waiting to lunge on any vessel that foolishly nears, their enormous bodies heavily armoured, often protected by select shielding at certain components rather than the whole vessel, and capable of specialized on-board repair by various organisms. They are mostly specialized on high-output energy weaponry and a good deal of specialized semi-biological missiles generally suited for closer ranges due to the respective energy bleed-off and slower projectile travel time. Many of these weapons do not immediatley seem too powerful but they have a frightening number of secondary effects - causing power shortages and holes to momentarily appear in enemy shields, dropping clusters of large vehicular-sized organisms onto a ship’s surface where they rip through armour, equipment, and guns, or splitting into smaller cyborg war-head bioforms that tunnel through armour with metal-tinted mandibles to explode at vital components. This is further augmented by their non-ship fleet elements, the most notable of which are living combat intelligences implanted into a insectoid fighter-constructs and whose consciousnesses are “mirrored” into on-ship repositories for further augmentation and preservation. As they feature no real “pilots”, they are capable of absurd and freakishly predatory motions through the air, armed with hundreds of often semi-energy based homing missiles and vicious long range energy bolt repeaters.

By comparison, the enormous void tyrant bioweapons at their disposal can be as large as their capital ships - gigantic creatures from the blackness between the stars bristling with innumerable macro-augmentations and high intensity direct energy cannons and hyper-accelerating bio-mass launchers partially powered by the eldritch energies contained within their bodies. Capable of abruptly shifting motion or moving in rapid bursts, they are not afraid to close in on enemy vessels if the opportunity presents itself as their colossal claws and bladed or crushing limbs are adapted to crushing similarly gigantic prey. They also possess unusual vessels made of what seems to be half-complete ship frames covered in pulsing masses of Void Repository, resulting in vessels shaped as they are like their own but covered in festering, decomposing, constantly frothing semi-biological matter. These grotesque monstrosities however sow confusion and terror in conflicts, generating enormous electrical and energetic interference onto enemies, vomiting swarms of volatile living mines emitting waves of jamming electromagnetic signals, and sending globules of infesting mass that can eat through and heavily weaken even the most heavy armour.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Riverton Corporation

Five Lines did not go down gently. The trials ripped the company's board of directors apart, with the help of a few brave whistleblowers who assisted in the collecting of crucial evidence. Riverton Corporation, lead by Adam Magnus Riverton, was a remainder of the once giant corporation. Adam and 42 other members who formed Riverton were whistleblowers of Five Lines, who sought to build a cleaner company that helped the public rather than use it for their own profit.
Consisting of members of Five Lines that were, comparably, charged with lighter punishment(though the shortest time spent in prison among the founding members was 12 years), Riverton wrote a new record for corporations to be the only one where the founding members had a criminal record. Obviously, the public's view of this reborn former war monger was not pretty. Many denounced them for their former affiliation with Five Lines, and some jokingly commented on the whole company consisting of whistleblowers being "at gunpoint 24/7".
Asd Adam had intended, Riverton started with social business first. They helped in the construction of basic infrastructure in many colonies as humanity drifted in space. Establishing close range communication was their profession too-with a ragtag bunch picked here and there from a gigantic corporation they had someone who could do something among their ranks.
Riverton's reputation improved over time thanks to Adam and the bunch working hard to contribute to the society. While Adam wanted Riverton to stay the way they did, his successor thought otherwise. Once most of the corporation's original members retired, Daniel Shallows, the second CEO of Riverton, started getting his hands on other business. Fashion, diet food products, brand pens, and not so long after, weapons. Daniel saw Riverton as more just another company that wanted to climb up the ladder of competition rather than a successor of a giant sin. And he acted accordingly, devoting himself to growing the company from over a small part of a galaxy to over countless galaxies.
Up to current time, starting with Daniel, there has been no movement to restore Riverton to what Adam had sought to make. It is the biggest corporation of humanity, seen anywhere a human lives.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Artificial Einstein-Rosen Bridge Utilization Facility

The collaboration of multiple species allowed for the construction of multiple of these structures in different parts of the universe. They allow the use of wormhole for fast travel in the most stable way available at the moment. The use of these facilities to go in one and end out in another is controlled by the Peace Committee, as each session of wormhole travel requires immense amount of power and accurate calculations to avoid disasters for the passengers.
Peace Committee's official terms, for the sake of translation, of these facilities is "Castle Gate".

There is one station near Proxima Centauri. Many are stationed throughout the universe.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Clairvoyance Cataclysm

Clairvoyance Cataclysm, founded by former U-Gov Senator Steven Lionheart and Strong AI Douglas, always has been a part of the AI business. Steven himself was the one who pushed the passing of the law to allow for self-awareness installed AI to be able to gain citizenship(which, after the forming of Peace Committee, was edited a little to follow intergalactic guidelines for citizenships). Douglas was the first AI to gain citizenship(in the human part of the world at least- other parts of the universe is yet to confirm related history), and the first to found a company too. The two were close friends far before CC came to be.
CC was also the first human corporation to "hire" AI's with citizenship instead of "utilizing" them. With the combination of human and robotic points of view, the company practiced the creation of countless AI's. The scale varied greatly, from bluetooth speaker AI to PMC spacecraft AI's. While the company itself has never manufactured their own brand of weapons, they help the development of AI's used for various smart weapons(firearms, missiles, and the like).
While other companies(and the U-Gov too) concentrate mostly on the technical functions on the AI and less on their personality, Clairvoyance Cataclysm attempted to make them more "human". Upon improving the already existing brain scanning technology, the company gathered countless scans from volunteers to research the various personalities and how they came to be, and how to "express" them as an AI's point of view. Such research required more trials and errors- side projects such as Olive Branch Project, Aether Project and more were launched to improve. Such projects are mostly still ongoing.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Shavrin

The Shavrins are one of the most widespread species in space, and one of the most notorious ones known. Having originated from a long gone planet in Segue 2, they were blessed with a speedy development of civilization and the advancement of technology at the blink of an eye. When humanity was experiencing the Last War on Earth, Shavrins had already initiated an Einstein-Rosen Bridge travel to Segue I and Milky Way.
Shavrins, before Peace Committee, was mostly known as a merciless empire. They brought a handful of species they enslaved from their home galaxy(whose planets were cracked and turned to resources), and planned to enslave more on the newfound galaxies. However, the resource they put in on the warp station that allowed stable travel without another station on the other side cost them too much of a price, and the fleets travelled through the galaxy without FTL travel to conserve fuel.

Their delayed expansion brought an end to the Shavrins' empire. As they slowly spread on the outskirts of Milky Way's civilizations, multiple species acknowledged the aggressive behavior of Shavrins against many other races. An unspoken alliance started to form around those who were attacked at least once by these greedy pirates- even if they were in the heat of a battle seconds ago, if a Shavrin craft appeared in their sights the two sides would happily turn their gunpoints to the unwelcomed guest.
Soon the unspoken alliance turned to a legit, full fledged alliance, and a galactic scale of war broke out. Humanity and the such gathered forces against the giant army of Shavrins.

The war ended with ovee 89% of Shavrin fleet in Milky Way destroyed and 55% in Segue I destroyed. The representative of the Shavrin species signed a treaty to officially stop their aggressive approach, and to help pay for the damage they had done. The treaty was further explored once Peace Committee was formed, forcing the Shavrin to free the enslaved people and pay a great fine that would be used to help those people live out of Shavrins' influence.

Though their days in the castle of gold over pillars of blood is over, many Shavrins can be easily seen throughout the world as space pirates or megacorps hoping to sieze power over the local markets.


They Came From Shavriniof
Shavriniof is the name of their home planet, which was cracked for the use of the race when the last of their spacecrafts took off of the planet. No record of it was left, as they found no use to keep the data of a long gone planet with them.

The Shavrins are mammals, with skins a bit thicker than a human's. Their skin is usually a shade of dark grey. They have a small bump at the back of their hips, a sign of a once present tail that disappeared through their evolution. They have horizontal pupils, the eyes stationed a bit to the sides compared to humans and thus giving them more field of view. While they do have hair similar to humans, they do not grow facial hair, only on the head.
The average height of a fully grown Shavrin is around 185cm, average weight being 100kg. They usually appear as slender humanoid figures, and are more flexible and agile compared to humans.
They live 60~70 years usually, around 80 if they live a healthy life.

The Shavrins possess a high level of technology, advanced through their blessing of fast development and the enslaving of other species in their past days. They also progressed greatly during the war against other species, developing countermeasures for various defensive and offensive tactics. One of the well known examples is their unique shield disruption technology, which utilizes electromagnetic fields to make an opening on an energy shield.

 

[Clan Ize]

Russia (Россия)

History: By the time the last war begun all that remained of Russia was an empty country. Any trace of the Russian people had vanished with the only life being the animals and the occasional scavenger. It had been this way for about 7 years now. About a Century before Russia had began project codenamed "Проект Кеплер" Or "Kepler Project" this project detailed the creation of a Space fleet and station in order to sustain the entire Russian country. This project though ambitious was successfully completed after about a century and executed successfully allowing the entire Russian Country to move to a self sustaining space station which to date is the largest station ever created. Housing, Feeding and sustaining over 300 Million People at any given point. However this quickly faced a problem, the Russian population was expanding and it very quickly became clear that one station was not enough to house the growing population. So they began to expand, creating more and more space stations when needed. As of now about 134 stations including the original spanning and controlling Star Systems have been completed and are operational, allowing massive growth and economic power.

When the rest of the world took to the Stars and the U-Gov was formed Russia chose not to join the U-Gov along with a couple other countries and instead worked alone usually keeping to themselves and preferring not to engage with other Major Powers. Since Russia first left Earth almost the entire Government has not changed. With the only major difference being that each Space Station having it's own small government who report to the federal government, similar to the U.S.


Military

The Russian Navy ( Военно-морской флот ) Is composed of 200 fleets, with each space station getting assigned one. And the rest in standby located at the original Space Station as it is the largest as well as most populated and well defended.


Executor Class Flagship Dreadnought (Флагманский дредноут класса "Палач")

Omen Class Battleship (Линкор класса Обисидиан)


Infinity class battlecruiser (линейный крейсер класса бесконечность)



MIG 98 Fighter Jet (Истребитель МИГ 98)


The Russians specialize in above average ship building. Flagships have the best technology available and are easily some of the best ships but are quite rare to see in full use. Lower class ships are about in the middle. Not as good as Weltraum Kaiserreich by a long shot but not horrible either and will still give anything they fight against a good run for their money. However what they don't have in technology they make up for in numbers, similar to the past ,the Russians have a massive amount of forces. In a normal battle deploying thousands upon thousands of ships if required without even having to call in more from another sector.



Standard Russian Soldiers ( Вооружённые силы Российской Федерации)

Speznaz ( спецназ)


Police (полиция)


Special Purpose Mobile Unit, OMON (Отряд Мобильный Особого Назначения)

Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ( Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации)

Federal Counterintelligence Service ( Федера́льная Слу́жба Контрразве́дки )

T-798 (Ob'yekt 798)

 

[Verena]

Due to popular demand, we go with the following blueprint of the Essex ship:

 

[Verena]

Spoiler: Homeworld

Gehenna (meaning “hell”)

The planet is tidally locked to its star, a red dwarf. What this means is that the planets’ orbital period is the same as its rotational so that the same side is always facing the star. As it is with most red dwarfs, the star releases flares every once in a while, during which it undergoes unpredictable dramatic increases in brightness for a few minutes.

Temperatures of the star-ward side exceed 100 degrees C, while on the dark side they fall below -100. The majority of the water on the star-ward side evaporates and is carried by the wind to the dark side where it condenses into ice. Water that is left on the hot side is in a vapor form.

There is a circulation of atmosphere thanks to the air on the star-ward side being constantly heated, expanding and creating a vacuum that sucks in the expanding hot air from the other side, which leads to distributing the heat across the planet, equalizing the temperatures. In this state, a circular belt between the two sides, a sort of twilight zone, is the only place where life can evolve and flourish. In this dusk band around the planet, the star is permanently hanging very low near the horizon with an ever-colorful red, yellow sky due to scattered light, resembling a never-ending sunset. Time as we know it is, in this sense, nonexistent for the planets’ inhabitants.

There is a constant flow of water from the night side to the dayside – a series of rivers, all flowing in the same direction. The erosion these rivers cause creates enormous caves and canyons. A great deal of the water that evaporates on the star-ward side comes down in the form of rain in the twilight zone, further contributing to plant growth, before reaching the cold side where it freezes.

Flora and fauna: Plantlife has adapted to the constant winds that blow unpredictably from both directions of the planet, as well as the solar flares, for example by anchoring securely into the soil, similar to weeds and sprouting flexible branches that can withstand even the strongest of winds. The prevailing vegetation consists of different types of grasses, bushes, shrubs and small trees. Underwater, vast blooms of photosynthetic plankton and bioluminescent algae support the life of fish, amphibians and invertebrates.

Both animals and Gehennians mostly occupy the huge and complex underground cave systems, as well as tunnels carved into the canyons. All underground dwelling creatures, including Gehennians, possess a heightened sense of smell and hearing. Their vision is more sensitive to UV light, which allows them to see well in low light conditions. Their slit pupils are ideally suited for their dark environment and are protected by a nictitating membrane. A huge weakness of these heightened senses is all sorts of extremes – bright light, noises and smells.

Spoiler: Racial traits and way of life

Gehennians’ entire bodies are covered in mostly dark-coloured, sharp-tipped scales of various shapes and sizes. These protect them from the harsh climate on their home planet but also act as natural armor to an extend. Fully developed individuals shed their entire skin once a year, children and teens do so more often. Gehennians are unable to wear most types of normal attire and armor due to their sharp and protruding scales. They instead opt for loose clothes, scarves and rags made of durable materials such as leather or linen.

They possess long prehensile tails used both for balance and grasping objects. Gehennians are bipedal and walk on digitigrade legs. Their padded hands and feet both have five fingers/toes each and end in curved claws that enable them to easily slice through flesh and climb even the steepest of rocks.

Both males and females possess a pair of horns that are sometimes a different color than the rest of the body. They can be used to carry burdens but also during combat. Gehennians often decorate, carve and paint their horns to represent a variety of meanings.

(Keiran’s scales and horns are almost entirely black with a few streaks of grey)

Gehennians are polyphyodonts, meaning that their teeth are continually replaced. They are carnivores but are also able to digest some plant matter. A typical, well-nourished individual can last for about 3-5 months without food. Due to the different nutritional value of foods outside of Gehenna, they need to change their diet in order for their bodies to function properly. For example, because meat from animals on their homeworld is higher in calcium, Gehennians need to eat more calcium-rich foods outside of it to prevent their scales from becoming brittle and weak.

Gehennians give birth to a single nearly fully developed young and have an average lifespan of 70-100 years. Children are given an initial name by their parents but may choose to change it later in life. Families don’t use surnames.

Way of life: Aside from a few large multicultural settlements, Gehennians prefer smaller, tight-knit communities. They build their housing by carving rooms and furniture directly out of the stone. Decorations are made from natural materials such as clay, bones, wood, shells etc. Bioluminescent moss and fungi are planted on the walls and used for lighting.

Gehennians follow a religion that by human standards can be identified as a combination of Shamanism and Animism. Children and animals born with albinism are believed to be linked spiritually to their main deity, their star, and be able to predict solar flares among other natural disasters. They are also believed to possess a variety of magical powers, ranging from healing powers to communicating by telepathy through dreams. These rare individuals are treated with great honor and viewed as leaders.

Although all races are welcome on Gehenna, only few are able to adapt to the extreme living conditions. Due to their similarity to reptiles on Earth, Gehennians are oftentimes viewed as beastly and uncivilized. Enslavement, especially by elves, is a huge issue that remains unsolved.